Welcome back to Earth from Space.
With Easter right around the corner,
today we take a look at four egg-shaped buildings visible from space
as captured by Copernicus Sentinel-2.
Eggs are an ancient symbol of new life,
associated with pagan festivals celebrating spring.
Decorating eggs for Easter is a tradition that dates back to the 13th century.
The appetite for eggs is also apparent in modern-day architecture and design.
In recent years, several egg-shaped structures have popped up in cities across the world.
Here are just a few visible from space.
In this image, the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Dallas, US, is visible.
The stadium serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL),
but it’s also used for a variety of other activities
including concerts, basketball and football games.
The stadium seats 80 000,
making it the fourth largest stadium in the NFL by seating capacity.
Here we can see the Beijing South Train Station.
It is one of the city’s largest stations,
and is one of the largest in Asia.
It serves as the terminus for high-speed trains on the Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway
and Beijing–Shanghai high-speed Railway
which can reach speeds up to 350 km/h.
To understand the enormity of the station,
the main hall in the centre is big enough to accommodate a Boeing 747 aircraft,
and the covered surface area of the roof is about the size of 20 football fields.
In this image, the Sapporo Dome stadium on the Japanese Hokkaido Island is visible.
Primarily used for baseball and football games,
the stadium is equipped with a system that switches between two entirely different surfaces
depending on which sport is being played.
Baseball games are played on an underlying turf field,
while football games are held on a grass pitch that slides in and out of the stadium as needed.
The stadium is one of the planned venues for this year’s Summer Olympics.
In this last image, the Taipei Dome can be seen.
The stadium is currently under construction in Taipei, Taiwan.
Once completed, the stadium will be used mostly for baseball games,
as well as other sporting events and commercial facilities.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission.
Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera
that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands.
The mission is mostly used to track changes in the way land is being used
and to monitor the health of vegetation.